-20+ years after broken throne, the war of red thunder is pretty much at a fucking simmer. It’s over. There is nothing else to fight over. Coriane Barrow Calore is like 17 or 18. She worked during the war as a spy for Elane Haven, and she is the BEST at what she does. She can become anyone or anything. Elane calls her "her chameleon". She is who is sent in to do the hard jobs. And she’s back from the front (her parents had no idea she was behind enemy lines in the first place). She saw some shit though that is burned into her retinas and she cannot tell anyone or she’ll give away her position and the fact that she was the spy that got the plans for the Citadel out of the Lakelands so that it could be sacked. 

-She’s pretty much floating through with her own little bundle of PTSD, trying to not give it away to her parents or younger brother. Then the unthinkable happens, and (I’d have to work it out more but for now just roll with it everyone) Maven is back. Or he’s never been dead. Obviously unthinkable for everyone, Mare and Cal included. They need to know for sure though, so what does Elane do? Call on her one and only best spy, who conveniently works perfectly for her plan. 

-what is that plan? Well, it’s of course to uses a healer to disguise Coriane as a carbon copy of her mother, obviously she will not pretend to be Mare, but she will keep up the facade that she is Mare’s daughter, but a copy of her. Elane’s ultimate goal? Scare the shit out of Maven, and put Coriane in a position where she is close enough to spy, get information about what he wants, report back, and keep an eye on whatever it is he is doing. 

-Mare and Cal obviously refuse, Mare the most, when Elane suggests the idea. Coriane agrees to the mission, in front of her parents. Which turns into the truth about her coming out, and her parents being horrified. Mare is furious, demands to know why, demands to know why Coriane kept this a secret from them, etc. etc. Coriane pretty much leaves in the dead of night after that and goes to Elane and that night they change her whole face. Listen its kind of traumatic for Coriane. She’s always looked like Cal, with the hair, and the eyes, etc. When she looks like a younger version of her mother she is almost pained by the vision of it. 

-Then she gets shipped out and she very easily finds Maven (he’s not exactly hiding). She’s got a pretty damn convincing story for why she sought him out (her only little fib is that she’s the younger sibling, that her brother is older and well, you know how Maven is about second siblings). She is allowed to hang around, but Maven’s not stupid (obviously), he keeps her at arms length. Keeps her just close enough that she might give herself away as a spy if she’s not careful, but Coriane (as I said previously) is very good at what she does. She molds herself a new personality, becomes an entirely different person, a made up person who is perfect for Maven to trust. 

-One scene that’s going to be one that ya’ll will be reading and going: "lily... lily... LiLY, LILY NO, NO NO NO no, NO absolutely not. If what I think is happening is happening, it better not be 😟" is as follows: it’s pretty much just a scene where it’s her and Maven alone, and she’s looking out a window at the rain, thinking about the fight she had with her parents right before she left, wondering if she’s gone too far with this (she wanted to keep as much of herself in this fake person as possible, but now she doesn’t know who is the real coriane and who is this made up one anymore). She sees her reflection in the mirror, and ends up crying a single tear because she doesn’t recognize herself anymore. She meets Mavens’ eye in the reflection and they start talking and have a pretty legitimate conversation about things, about everything, about her, and in a round about way, she sort of tells him the truth that she doesn’t know who she is, etc. Which, listen, he eats that shit up, because of course his perfect brother and Mare fucked up their child like that, it fits his narrative of their relationship. But he gets kinda too close to coriane, and tucks her hair behind her ear, tells her that she reminds him of Mare, etc. It’s a little uncomfy folks, deal with it. He doesn't do anything, just makes her freak out a bit, and gets a little to close for comfort. But that is the moment when he trusts her completely. And now she is in. But at the cost of the fact that she realizes just how obsessed with her mother he was. It scares her. 

-She’s also run into her parents with him in her little disguise. And of course Maven couldn’t resist taunting them with her, and he does this kind shady thing, where he walks around her, shifts her hair away from her neck and smirks at them. Of course Mare crumbles, that’s her baby, she knows Coriane even with a false face.

-She makes a mistake. It’s during a moment when again, maven gets just a little too close. At this point, she’s figured out he’s got a very massive webbing plan where he is going to use a bunch of different loop holes in different treaties etc. to destroy the peace her parents, family, and their friends have built. But the mistake is made by Coriane and a healer pretty much undoes the work elane’s healer did, revealing Coriane’s real features. 

-Coriane and Maven are alone after that, and he watches her, pulling her apart little by little with his words. Of course, the groups come together cause Coriane sounded the alarm and there is a massive battle out there around them. The people Maven was working with want her dead, want to put her head on a spike and use it to put Mare and Cal on their knees. They demand he gives her to them before they leave to deal with the threat outside. Maven is deciding what to do with her though when she manages to get loose. They have their own little scuffle, which ends up with Coriane killing him (up to interpretation if he lets her, or if she actually just overpowers him). While he’s bleeding out, he looks up at her and says, “I never would have given you to them. Not for anything.” She moves away from him, holding whatever she used to kill him, and cries (she’s never killed anyone before, only stolen information etc.). She looks up when he says, “dont cry. You’re perfect.” (listen this is the tiktok someone sent me, and the song Alien Blue plays right after with the Shame Shame Shame part and I hatched this fic from that). And in that moment, she realizes with horror what those words mean coming from him, as he bleeds out and officially dies. (sorry Maven stans. ): ) --> it’s got a few meanings... one that she looks just like her father and is perfect because of that, or that she reminds him so much of her mother that she is perfect because of that. OOOOR that she was so perfect in her little facade that she did fool him, as in she reminded him so much of himself that he let her in and let her get close. 

-she get out and finds her parents and while they are reunited, she is pretty much left with his words echoing in her head. It's a super dramatic scene. She falls to her knees, they collapse around her, holding her close, demanding to know if she's hurt, where he is etc. But she just stares off into space, and drops the weapon covered in his blood while those words echo in her mind. ((((: